Sage Style Advice From Fashion Icon Iris Apfel

There's a fashion-in-film explosion happening today at Tribeca Cinemas, offering event-goers a bevy of free things to do and see. Last night, we attended the launch party to get the 411 on what to expect.

The two-day film festival, "Fashion in Film", hosted by Tribeca Enterprises and DailyCandy, includes a mini-retrospective of Baz Luhrmann's visually stunning, distinctive films (Australia, Moulin Rouge!, and The Great Gatsby), selected docs about fashion (including supermodels, Valentino, and Gucci), and discussions with style icon Iris Apfel, Luhrmann's Oscar-winning costume designer Catherine Martin, and many of the films' directors. On display are the actual costumes Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, and Tobey Maguire wore in Gatsby.

"Leo and Carey had many more costume fittings than they would have liked!" Martin told us at last night's celebration for the event. The acclaimed designer (who was wearing Prada), spent years researching the Roaring '20s, including raiding the Parisian archives of Coco Chanel. Martin and her husband, Luhrmann, became good friends with Karl Lagerfeld when Luhrmann shot his epic 2004 Chanel commercial set on Parisian rooftops, featuring Nicole Kidman in Lagerfeld's spectacular gowns.

"Karl is incredibly hard-working," said Martin. "He sketches every design himself, speaks many languages, and is one of the most well-read people I've met. It was incredible to be allowed into the inner sanctum of Chanel. A lot of my fashion dreams came true!"

Last night, we also saw a screening of filmmaker Christina Voros' short on guerrilla street-style photographer Tommy Ton, highlighting the increasing democratization of fashion photography due to Instagram, NYFW paparazzi, and blogs like The Sartorialist. "There were four or five [street-style photogs] in the front row at Dolce & Gabbana in 2009," said Voros. "Everyone realized we need to take them seriously because they're changing the landscape of how we view fashion."

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James Franco, who models for Gucci when he's not acting or directing, produced Voros' documentary, The Director (which screens today), about Gucci's creative director Frida Giannini. "I was granted access because of James' close relationship with The House of Gucci," said Voros. "Frida is a very private person and her presence as the mastermind of Gucci was gradual. When you step into the shoes of Tom Ford, you don't just "arrive," you build your identity and vision. It's easy to do one iconic collection, but to do it several seasons a year, for years...those are the designers who succeed."

What would people be most surprised to know about Franco? "That he's as a good a producer and director as he is an actor," said Voros, who's collaborated with Franco, often as his cinematographer, on mmany film projects since they met at NYU's film school.

Speaking of collaborations, Apfel (in Oscar de la Renta and armfuls of self-designed colorful bracelets), had just flown in from Brazil, where she was consulting on her jewelry collection for Swarovski.

"Fashion you can buy, but style you possess," said Apfel. The 92-year-old legend attended her friend Ralph Rucci's show during NYFW but doesn't draw inspiration from many emerging designers. "Seventh Avenue needs to understand that the 18-year-olds with perfect bodies that they design for aren't the ones who can afford to buy their clothes. The key to style is learning who you are, which takes years. There's no how-to road map to style. It's about self-expression and, above all, attitude."

Apfel, the subject of an exhibition in 2005 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, is currently being filmed by Oscar-nominated documentarian, Albert Maysles, who directed the legendary Grey Gardens (which also screens today). "[Grey Gardens] showed so much about the loving nature of human relationships, and so many people didn't get that, at the time," he said. "The New York Times reviewer thought they were too crazy to be filmed! They didn't appreciate people who are a little different."

Maysles is equally captivated by his latest subject, Apfel. "The most important thing in a documentary," Maysles told us, "is choosing a subject the audience connects with. Iris has a personality that draws you into whatever she's doing."

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